Stephen F. Cohen: "As anyone who followed the unfolding of the crisis
knows, prominent members of US officialdom—from the State Department,
Congress, and the Obama administration—were persistently present
throughout the Maidan events, publicly and privately urging a showdown
with Yanukovych, the constitutionally elected president."
full:
https://www.thenation.com/article/four-years-of-ukraine-and-the-myths-of-maidan/
I get a chuckle out of this. To start with, the rivalry between
Poroshenko and Yanukovych was bogus to start with. Oligarchic rule in
Ukraine relies heavily on the exploitation of pro or anti-Russian
rhetoric used to con the voter. For example, Tymoshenko, the most
rabidly nationalistic of these elites, went to prison for using her
office for personal gain by cutting a deal with Gazprom at the expense
of Ukraine.
Meanwhile, Paul Manafort who orchestrated Yanukovych's election
campaign, offered his services to Poroshenko when it looked like
nationalism was on the ascendancy.
Today, there was news about the pending arrest of Gregory Craig, who was
Obama's chief counsel, for not registering as a foreign agent when he
was performing the same exact services for Yanukovych as Manafort:
Craig’s firm was hired in 2012 by Yanukovych’s Justice Ministry to
conduct a review of the prosecution of one of Yanukovych’s leading
political rivals, Yulia ­Tymoshenko. The agreement included providing
advice on improving prosecutions by the ministry, according to court
filings.
Skadden produced a 187-page white paper that offered a mixed review of
the trial and imprisonment of Tymoshenko, claiming the analysis it
conducted of the case was independent.
But human rights advocates alleged the report had been engineered by
Yanukovych’s government and whitewashed the jailing of his political
opponent.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/gregory-craig-ex-obama-white-house-counsel-expects-to-be-charged-in-relation-to-ukrainian-work-with-manafort-his-lawyers-say/2019/04/10/9c0e0b32-4c04-11e9-93d0-64dbcf38ba41_story.html